April Fools
by Ad Astra Per Alia Porci
Summary: Lorelai has made some plans for her favourite holidays... find out how Luke reacts. R & R please. Oneshot.


"April Fools!" Lorelai squealed with glee as she heard Luke set off yet another one of her booby-traps located around the diner. Luckily this one was much milder than the others had been; it only released a handful of glitter from the ceiling as Luke walked through the door into the storeroom.

"Go to work already, would you?" Luke grumbled at Lorelai as he reappeared into the main part of the diner. Apparently Lorelai had been planning pranks for the past week in preparation for today. She had snuck out of bed at some point in the small hours of the morning and rigged as many things as she could think of. All of her jokes were within reason, nothing to vindictive and most had a sort of creative flair to them. In the privacy of his head Luke admitted that her pranks were very amusing, albeit more enjoyable if he hadn't been the main target for most of them. However, Luke was almost glad to be the recipient of her temporary torture just because she was so delighted by the results. _Almost_ being the key word.

Luke had started off his day with his hair dyed blue after Lorelai had so thoughtfully added several drops of methylene blue to his Head 'n' Shoulders shampoo. He noticed the new hue as soon as he stepped out of the shower, the blue a start contrast to the beige tone of the bathroom décor reflected in the mirror. Lorelai was then immediately woken up by an immensely annoyed and bewildered Luke. He wasn't able to demand an answer out of her for a full ten minutes; he had to wait for her giggles to die down first. "I thought it would bring out the colour in your eye," she had finally managed to squeak out feebly. Once she had regained her composure she bellowed "April fools", which, as it turns out, happens to be the knee-jerk reaction whenever one of her shenanigans is successful. It wasn't until two pranks later, after he had been squirted by a protruding hose after flushing the toilet and opened up his customary morning banana to find it already sliced into at least fifteen pieces, that he realized that this was going to be a continuing theme throughout the day.

Since then, he had witnessed five prank calls from her cell phone, three to Taylor and one each to Rory and Sookie, had water dumped on him from a well balanced water balloon, and she had even managed to rig the diner phone so that it shocked him when he picked it up. Today was going to be the longest day of his life. He could feel it.

"Luckily, in anticipation of this wonderful holiday I booked the entire day off so that I could spend it here, with you, and enjoy my handiwork," she replied beaming proudly as he surveyed his now-shimmering flannel.

"April 1st is not a holiday," he groused simply for the effect. She didn't smile as much if he didn't act grouchy and annoyed following her mischief. He made a big show of trying to remove the glitter from his shirt.

"Then why did I get the day off?" she queried.

"Because you own the place," he replied with a soft, crooked grin.

"So why don't you have the day off?" Lorelai smirked triumphantly.

"Because I don't have any elaborate practical jokes to keep an eye on," he said without hesitation.

"Why? Did you forget that the holiday season was approaching?"

Luke groaned with effort, "It is **not** a holiday!"

"I hope this doesn't mean that you'll be forgetting other important dates: my birthday, our anniversary, Christmas…" Lorelai continued listing all the designated special days on the Calendar, ticking each off on her fingers.

"Arbour day doesn't count!" Luke objected the twelfth day she had listed. He hadn't protested when she listed Chanukah, despite that she isn't Jewish it certainly qualified as an important holiday for a lot of people, and he even let her slide when she had said "First snow day" since he knew she followed that one religiously.

"Well, well, well. All of a sudden the cleanliness of the environment isn't important to you anymore?"

"I didn't say that," he huffed.

"You said it didn't count as an important holiday, meaning that what the day stands for isn't important to you. Ergo, you hate trees." Lorelai clucked her tongue in mock-disapproval, "And here I thought I was dating the human version of the Lorax…"

"The Lorax?" he repeated clearly confused.

"Dr. Suess," she replied in the same tone one would say 'duh.'

"Of course. How silly of me."

"It's understandable; I mean why would a Tree-Nazi be reading a book about saving the trees?"

"I don't hate trees," Luke responded gruffly.

"So why are you so against Arbour Day?"

"I'm not. In fact, I'm all for it, but it still doesn't count in your list."

"Why are you such an 'important-date' snob?" Luke couldn't help but chuckle at Lorelai's response. She never ceased to amaze him. He was going to argue further but was interrupted by a loud popping sound followed by a surprised yelp from a table a few feet away. "April Fools!" Lorelai bellowed and broke into more laughter.

Luke walked over to the table and Lorelai's latest victim, A.K.A. Kirk, to see what had happened. "Your salt shaker exploded," he gestured to the now empty casing lying sideways on the table leaking something white and bubbling, sans the lid. Kirk cowered away from it as if it were going to go off again at any minute. Suddenly another sounded from the other side of the room. Kirk emitted a scream and dove under the table for cover as another salt lid shot across the room.

"April Fools!" a familiar voice yelled in the direction of the latest detonation.

"Lorelai?" Luke strode over to her purposefully, patiently waiting for her giggles to disappear.

"Yes?" she asked sweetly, folding her hands under her chin and fluttering her eyelashes innocently.

"What did you do to the salt shakers?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she raised her hands in a shrug and shook her head as if to add weight to her argument.

"Lorelai," he growled.

"I plead the fifth," she responded quickly.

"What did you do?"

"I made it so they would explode when people tried to use them…" she admitted sounding defeated but her voice still laced with mild amusement.

"All of them?" he groaned. A wide smile appeared on her face and she nodded dramatically. Luke turned his head quickly so that she wouldn't see his smile. "How?"

"Baking soda and concentrated lemon juice?" her voice rose at the end as if she were guessing the answer.

"Disarm them before someone loses an eye," he instructed.

"I'll need you to get me a bucket or bin or something to put them in…" she trailed off as she hopped off the stool and plucked the rag off his shoulder and sauntered towards Kirk's table to wipe up the mess. Luke walked up the stairs to his apartment and opened his supply closet in search of a large plastic bin when he was ambushed by every type of ball imaginable. The closet was completely filled with soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, tennis balls, bouncy balls, baseballs, golf balls, and even balls of scrunched up newspaper. Lorelai must have collected all of these from the neighbours.

As he opened they all spilled out and knocked him off his feet. He landed on the floor with a resounding thud and a string of curses. His hat fell off his head, letting strands of his indigo hair fall into his eyesight and earning a few more choice words. Before Luke had a chance to get up and recompose himself the door to his apartment flung open. "April fools!" Luke turned towards the door with a scowl on his face only to be blinded by the flash of a camera. She took one more while he was in his daze and then set the evidence aside to help him to his feet; she wasn't much help though, as she could barely keep herself upright through her waves of laughter.

He tried in vain to maintain his scowl or at least a poker face. He finally gave up and joined her laughter as he pulled her down to join him on the floor. They playfully wrestled for a minute, throwing random tennis balls at each other and stuffing the occasional newspaper down the other's shirt. Their laughter was silenced periodically when one dipped in for a kiss. The peace didn't last for more than a minute though, as soon enough another ball of paper would find its way into an item of clothing.

They probably could have continued this way for another hour or so except that their fun was interrupted by a terrified howl from downstairs as another salt shaker exploded near Kirk's table. From her position on top of Luke's stomach, she grinned down at him satisfactorily. "Best. Holiday. Ever." Then suddenly she hopped off of him, and ran out of the apartment and back into the diner. "April Fools!" her cackle carried all the way upstairs to Luke's ears. He stumbled to his feet, replaced his hat on his head, and headed down after her after retrieving the plastic bin from the closet. He had a long day ahead of him… but he wouldn't trade it for the world.

* * *

A/N: Sorry, I tried to post this yesterday, but there was something wrong with fanfiction. If you're bored, why don't you check out my other two Gilmore Girls stories? You know you're curious. They're short. And they didn't get many reviews and are feeling kind of bad about themselves… Also I wouldn't object if you wanted to leave me a review about this story either. Thanks. 


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